New Towns for England - where should they be, and how should they be funded and delivered?

A new WPI Strategy report outlines the local authority districts (LADs) with the highest potential for New Town development, and advocates for a partnership approach between government and the private sector to deliver the developments.

The report identifies 12 “trailblazer” locations, in line with official plans to identify sites for 10,000 homes or more, using a unique methodology based on spatial, economic and needs-based tests. Public polling was also used to identify where acceptability for new development would be highest.

The work was authored by two former senior MHCLG economists: Paul Chamberlain and David Morris. We are also grateful for the support and expertise provided by our two sponsors for the work: Pension Insurance Corporation and the National House Building Council.

The report has been shared with government and submitted to the New Towns Taskforce to aid their own forthcoming recommendations.

Methodology:

  • LADs with potential for New Town development were identified using an index based on five key measurable indictors: housing supply gap, land availability, proximity to economic hubs, housing affordability, and development viability. This produced a top 20 LADs where viable new towns could be created.

  • This was then overlaid by an analysis of FocalData MRP polling of public attitudes to new housebuilding development in the top 20 LADs, to identify 12 LADs (see below) where support for a New Town is likely to be highest.

Key recommendations:

  • New Town Development Corporations (NTDCs) should be established to deliver new towns in these 12 LADs, which are ranked in order of public acceptability:

    • Milton Keynes

    • Leeds

    • South Gloucestershire

    • Central Bedfordshire

    • Wiltshire

    • Huntingdonshire

    • West Northamptonshire

    • Mid Devon

    • South Cambridgeshire

    • Winchester

    • East Hertfordshire, and

    • Northumberland.

  • Developing a New Town in each of these 12 areas would result in at least 120,000 new homes and substantial benefits for jobs and growth.

  • Based on our tests, Milton Keynes should be the ‘trailblazer town’ built first: it has 59% public acceptability for new development, the highest in the country.  

  • To overcome practical barriers there should be a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy, an expansion of modular construction, and a Pipeline Fund for greater planning capacity.

  • We estimate the cost of building a New Town and associated infrastructure to be around £3.5 - £4bn, which should be funded primarily through a combination of government borrowing and private sector patient capital. This would then be repaid with interest from the resulting development over time.  

Events:

  • Hayley Rees, Managing Director at PIC Capital will be speaking about the report with the New Towns Taskforce Chair, Sir Michael Lyons, at UKREiiF on Tuesday 20th May.

  • The Parliamentary launch of the report will take place on Thursday 22nd May, with Chris Curtis, MP for Milton Keynes North (where we suggest the first town is built), Kane Emerson of the YIMBY Alliance, a cross-party group dedicated to more housebuilding, and Tracy Blackwell, CEO of Pension Insurance Corporation.